Read "Against the Grain" by Joris-Karl Huysmans online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
The terrified domestics hurried off in search of the Fontenay doctor, who did not understand one word of Des Esseintes' condition. He muttered sundry medical terms, felt the invalid's pulse and examined his tongue, tried in vain to make him speak, ordered sedatives and rest, promised to come back next day, and on Des Esseintes shaking his head -- he had regained strength enough to disapprove his servant's zeal and send the intruder about his business -- took his departure and went off to describe to every inhabitant of the village the eccentricities of the house, the furniture and appointments of which had struck him with amazement and frozen him where he stood.
To the astonishment of the servants, who dared not stir from their quarters, their master recovered in a day or two, and they came upon him drumming on the windowpanes and gazing up anxiously at the sky.